Commentary on Economics, Information and Human Action

Month: May 2011

Michael Giberson A FuelFix post by Tom Fowler relays ERCOT’s report that the Texas grid operator expects to have enough power to serve customers reliably this summer. At the end of Fowler’s post he casually mentioned, in connection with the rolling blackout in ERCOT last winter, “a report by federal reliability officials concluded power plant … More Power outages hot and cold

Michael Giberson The Texas legislature has passed the nation’s first hydraulic fracturing fluids disclosure bill. The governor is expected to sign the bill into law. The text of the bill is available from the Texas Legislature Online website. In summary, a oil or gas well operator performing hydraulic fracturing will have to disclose the volume … More Texas legislature passes fracking disclosure bill

Lynne Kiesling I wasn’t around KP a lot last week because I was spending a lot of time following the Patriot Act extension debacle and contacting my Congressional representatives to urge them to vote against it (of my so-called representatives, only Senator Durbin did so; I think this is the first time he and I … More Civil liberties and economics: more than just free markets

Michael Giberson At Streetwise Professor, Craig Pirrong examines the CFTC’s case against alleged oil market manipulators Parnon Energy, Arcadia Petroleum LTD and Arcadia Energy (Suisse), all affiliates of the trading firm Arcadia. Whatever the ultimate merits of the case, he says the CFTC is going to have trouble making the charges stick. In part the … More CFTC files oil market manipulation case

Michael Giberson Much of the talk about hydraulic fracturing of shale has been about natural gas, but the method is being used to develop oil shale as well. The New York Times is bringing the news to the east coast, “Shale Boom in Texas Could Increase U.S. Oil Output,” and Texas newspapers have been covering the … More Eagle Ford Shale providing oil production boost

Michael Giberson Kenneth Green hosted a panel discussion on the environmental consequences of hydraulic fracturing at the American Enterprise Institute. Panelists were: Ron Bailey of Reason Magazine, Mark Brownstein from the Environmental Defense Fund, Timothy Considine from the University of Wyoming, and Amy Mall of the Natural Resources Defense Council. The video above is just a short sound bite by Ron Bailey, … More Hydraulic fracturing panel discussion at AEI